Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PIXEL (Port IoT for Environmental Leverage)

Teaser

The available operational data in ports (resources tracking, container status, vessel operations, surface or berth available, air/water quality measurements,...) is constantly increasing and technology is getting inexpensive and widely available. However, the application of...

Summary

The available operational data in ports (resources tracking, container status, vessel operations, surface or berth available, air/water quality measurements,...) is constantly increasing and technology is getting inexpensive and widely available. However, the application of such systems is still single-entity centric, since the information is not shared, keeping the real potential of the Internet of Things (IoT) hidden. Furthermore, an effective integration of operational data is far from optimal in most ports, and especially so in medium or small ports, where budget is limited and IT services usually is outsourced.
PIXEL enables a two-way collaboration of ports, multimodal transport agents and cities for optimal use of internal and external resources, sustainable economic growth and environmental impact mitigation, towards the Port of the Future. PIXEL will leverage technological enablers to voluntary exchange data among ports and stakeholders, thus ensuring a measurable benefit in this process. The main outcome of this technology will be efficient use of resources in ports, sustainable development and green growth of ports and surrounding cities/regions.

Built on top of the state-of-the art interoperability technologies, PIXEL will centralise data from the different information silos where internal and external stakeholders store their operational information. PIXEL will enhance productivity and operational efficiency of resources in ports by the following features:
• Close the gap between small and large ports by providing an easy-to-use open source smart solution for operational data interchange
• Migrate from document-centric management systems to data-centric interoperable systems
• Reduce environmental impact in Port Cities and surrounding areas by improving the knowledge and control of the port operations, optimizing processes and improving management
• Focused on small-medium ports innovation
• Improve the energy efficiency of the ports, promote the use of clean energies, improve logistics processes, increase the environmental awareness of all the stakeholders involved and, in general, contribute to reduce the carbon footprint and the environmental impact of the ports and port-related activities

PIXEL objectives are:
O1: Enable the IoT-based connection of port resources, transport agents and city sensor networks
O2: Achieve an automatic aggregation, homogenization and semantic annotation of multi-source heterogeneous data from different internal and external actors
O3: Develop an operational management dashboard to enable a quicker, more accurate and in-depth knowledge of port operations
O4: Model and simulate port-operations processes for automated optimization
O5: Develop predictive algorithms
O6: Develop a methodology for quantifying, validating, interpreting and integrating all environmental impacts of port activities into a single metric called the Port Environmental Index (PEI).
O7: Develop guidelines for mitigating possible environmental and health effects of port activities and develop evidence-based, standardized and cost-effective procedures for environmental monitoring in port areas

Regarding its importance for society, the outcome of this project is expected to provide a reduction on the impact due to climate change and the environment of port activities, their operational and infrastructural costs, improvement of logistics efficiency and better integration of the port in the surrounding socio-economic area, including city-port relations and the smart urban development of Port Cities. Furthermore, realisation of these activities and achieving this impact also will entail attention to environmental and climate-related concerns.

Work performed

WORK PLAN, COORDINATION AND DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT:
REQUIREMENTS AND USE-CASES:
MODELLING, PROCESS ANALYSIS AND PREDICTIVE ALGORITHMS:
PORT ENVIRONMENTAL INDEX DEVELOPMENT:
ENABLING ICT INFRASTRUCTURE FRAMEWORK:
PILOT TRIALS, INTEGRATION, DEPLOYMENT AND EVALUATION:
ASSESSMENT AND EXPANSION PLAN:
EXPLOITATION, DISSEMINATION AND COMMUNICATION:

Final results

PIXEL will go beyond the state of the art by targeting specifically the integration among all actors involved in ports’ environmental impacts (Port Authorities, terminal operators, shipping companies, customs, security forces, city authorities, etc.) and facilitate critical decision-making supported on available data. Usage of IoT platforms and legacy data will be instrumental in addressing complex problems that require the management of a multitude of heterogeneous smart objects, devices and systems and the successive fusion and mining of the produced heterogeneous data streams (PMS, SCADAs, environment, sensors, building, etc). Enabling IoT integration and interoperability and creating a solution which gathers all these components in a unique dashboard and DSS interface will spark new applications and business opportunities that will support the requirements to deploy the Port of the Future.

PIXEL results will be:
- Infrastructure recommendations for heterogeneous sources data acquisition
- Information Hub
- Dashboard for decision making
- Operational tools: models of processes, algorithms to effectively improve their operations and
- P.E.I. methodology and metric
- Guidelines and procedures to effectively implement P.E.I.

Potential impacts of PIXEL are:
Impact 1. Reduction of impact on climate change and the environment of port activities: The project will develop a comprehensive and extendable Port Environmental Index (PEI) that will help in assessing and monitoring the overall environmental impact of ports and bring awareness on how different port KPIs affect the environment.
Impact 2. Reduction of operational and infrastructural costs: PIXEL project aims at extending the current document-based communication of port actors to a complete operational data hub where not only internal port actors but also external could rely to obtain the major benefits of data integration and advanced data analysis.
Impact 3. Improvement of logistics efficiency: PIXEL fosters the adoption of new procedures and processes which will clearly impact on the whole logistics efficiency. This impact will be assessed by the implementation of the solution in four real ports framed into three different use-cases
Impact 4. Better integration of the port in the surrounding socio-economic area, including city-port relations and the smart urban development of Port Cities: PIXEL will have a transversal impact, thus, to the whole city area, influencing socioeconomic, sustainable and citizen issues
Impact 5. Large scale adoption of the PIXEL solution and approach

Website & more info

More info: https://pixel-ports.eu/.